Romney, RNC's digital bracketing strategy for Charlotte

9/5/12 9:03 AM EDT

Republicans’ bracketing efforts at the Democratic convention aren’t confined to in-person appearances here in Charlotte — the Republican National Committee and the Romney campaign are using online ads and promoted tweets and trends to capitalize on the increased search interest in Obama and the Democrats.

They’ve unveiled a major makeover for their anti-Obama microsite, obamaisntworking.com, to include new social tracking aspects that allow users to look up trending hashtags and topics on Twitter.

And in addition to the usual search ads, Facebook ads and promoted tweets Republicans run for bracketing, on Tuesday the RNC also started running a promoted trend, #AreYouBetterOff — the first time a campaign or party committee has bought promoted trends for bracketing purposes.

The RNC also bought Web display ads on the Charlotte Observer’s website, which go right alongside the Obama campaign’s display ads (screenshot below). (Note: POLITICO is partnering with the Charlotte Observer for the Democratic convention.)

“It was a nice way to welcome the convention using a highly engaged media strategy,” said Zac Moffatt, digital director for the Romney campaign.

It’s an extension of the digital operation Republicans built surrounding the convention in Tampa last week. Per Moffatt, the campaign added 3.9 million new “likes” total to the Facebook pages for Mitt Romney, Ann Romney and Paul Ryan just during the three days of the GOP convention.